Chapter5


 * // 10 Traits of Highly Effective Teachers //**


 * Chapter 5 **
 * Teaching traits that get results: Instructional effectiveness **

According to our text, the essential teaching skills are comprised of seven areas of expertise. Which one(s) resonate with you the most, and do you feel that they are adequately evaluated with our current ITS system?

After attending another “update” meeting between a building administrator and a teacher on an assistant plan, classroom management is the essential teaching skill that is on my mind. This appears to be an area of deficiency for this veteran teacher. She creates a wonderful classroom climate and has no issue with student management but every period is filled things other than teaching time. Dani Carter- I think the two areas of expertise that resonate with me the most are lesson presentation and classroom management. Lesson presentation is something that I have always been strong in because I have the skill to ask questions that require students to develop deeper thinking responses. I struggle with seeing the teachers that just provide their students with answers to questions, I would rather ask another question to lead the student to an appropriate answer. I do struggle though with the communication of explanations and instructions in math class. I only notice it in math because I feel like I repeat myself so much throughout the year that I skim over some explanations and instructions because I remember telling my students that previously. Even though they had been told that previously I know they are human so they might not remember what I am talking about so I need to get better at it. Classroom management is another one that resonates with me because I run my room like a tight ship. The students are aware of their expectations and they know that there will be consequences if they stray from the expectation. My co-workers joke with me saying that I take what the students do to personally because if they do stray I hold class meetings and discuss what happened and how we can change it.

I feel like lesson planning is adequately evaluated with our current ITS system. I think that because when I was looking through the ITS, the majority of the standards listed are either in developed lesson plans or have been thought about to make the lesson plan. If the teacher is making lesson plans that have nothing to do with formative and summative assessments then the purpose of the lesson will not match the students. Putting adaptations within lesson plans shows the thought out process of using different strategies to deliver instruction. Every standard and the majority of the criteria listed is involved in lesson planning somehow.

I am not certain the cause and effect relationship but I am suspecting lesson management and classroom management may go hand in hand with this teacher. My next task as mentor is to observe her classroom scripting routines and start/end times for activities. She seems to be unaware of how much time she is off teaching tasks. This seems to be an essential teaching skill that should be easy to observe. Assessment and diagnosis is the task I think is most difficult to observe directly. This skill appears to encompass all of the others. If teachers are experts that self assessment and self diagnosis they will self monitor all of the other skills. Christine Jacobs- Of the seven essential teaching skill areas of expertise: 1. __Lesson Planning__ (STANDARD 3) 2. __Lesson Presentation__ (STANDARD 2) 3. __Lesson Management__ (STANDARD 4) 4. __Climate Management__ (STANDARD 1, 5) 5. __Classroom Management__ (STANDARD 6) 6. __Student Management__ (STANDARD 3, 6) 7. __Assessment and Diagnosis__ (STANDARD 1, 5), I find that all of them are very imporant and many of them are linked to the Iowa Teaching Standards. I don't know that Professional Growth (STANDARD 7) and Professional District Responsibilities (STANDARD 8) are adequately evaluated with our current Standards Based evaluation system. These two do not appear to be a highlighted area of the seven essential teaching skill areas of expertise either. I think this is because these are two areas that teachers need two perform or do, but they are not pieces of instructional importance in the classroom when interacting with students during an OBSERVATION. Evidence just can't be gathered and evaluated at that particular time...Those criterion from Standards 7 and 8 need to come from another artifact. It seems that they aren't really acknowledged in the seven essential teaching skill areas either... I feel some of the areas fit more than one teaching standard, as noted above. My question is, How do you decipher between Climate Management, Classroom Management, and Student Management? I would conclude that positivity, collaborative relationships, and motivational techniques all tie together in development management effectiveness in the classroom. For me, personally, it seems hard to sort them out. What resonates with me the most in this chapter is that "Highly effective teachers don't teach in one way--they have a repertoire of instructional techniques, teaching behaviors, and essential skills on which to draw, depending on the needs of their students, the nature of the subject, and the complexity of the learning outcomes (81)." Therefore, it is essential that teachers don't use the same techniques and strategies to deliver instruction for all subject areas. They certainly may not be effective for all areas, and therefore, it will be noticeable in the learning outcomes!

Laughlin: There are three areas of expertise that resonate with me at this particular time, which are lesson planning, climate management, and assessment and diagnosis. Lesson planning is something that takes time and a great deal of effort. Planning a lesson which incorporates the standards, the objectives, the outcomes, the content that is new, as well as relating it to the past, taking into account the students learning styles, abilities, interests and how they will be assessing the learning throughout the lesson takes a great deal of knowledge and really knowing your students to plan out a lesson. However, this is only the first step, planning and thinking about the lesson is one thing, but implementing it in a seamless, successful way is how it goes right along with the lesson presentation. However, for a lesson to even be presented, it must be well planned out. The second expertise that resonates with me is climate management. This one hits home with me not only with the climate in the classroom of any given teacher, but also with the climate of the building. If teachers are not positive and supportive with one another, how can we truly collaborate with each other and build from one's successes. I always like to say do not reinvent the wheel, just modify it to make it your own wheel. You want it to get to the same end result, so use what is already known and then put your own twist on it to make it fit your students needs (which goes back to planning). Schools need to be an environment where learning from your mistakes and being successful are a good thing. It is okay to make mistakes, we all make them, but learn from them and move on. As well as learn from others mistakes and do not make the same ones. Why not help each other to both be successful, rather than only one being successful. The last one that resonates with me is assessment and diagnosis. I believe that all students and teachers can learn, maybe not all on the same day or in the same way, but all can learn. We need to assess and be able to diagnose what learning is occurring or not to encourage and support as needed. We can not wait for one "big" test/project to determine if students are learning or not, this should and needs to be an ongoing process. Sure the "big" tests/projects need to be a part of it, but why shouldn't we use small informal checks to see how students are doing. We also should be assessing students knowledge before we teach to see if review is necessary or if we can move quicker through something. These three areas of expertise are ones that I feel are a large part of learning and instruction. I feel that in our current ITS system the lesson planning, assessment/diagnosis, and climate management are a part of the criteria and could be identified by either observation, conversation, or artifacts. I do feel that climate management is one area that would need to be identified by talking with students and asking questions of them to really see how they feel about their classroom and the atmosphere in it.

I do have a question though, even if people can have good climate management in their classroom, but do not portray that same thing to their colleagues within the building, do they really meet that area?

 as of expertise. Which one(s) resonate with you the most, and do you feel that they are adequately evaluated with our current ITS system? All of the essential teaching skills resonate with me. They are all necessary for effective teaching. I do believe when a teacher is skilled in certain areas they will not have to work as hard at others. If lessons are well planned and right for the students skill levels, engaging and adjusted as needed there will be less reactive student management taking place. As Christine pointed out, each of the essential skill areas can be linked to one of the first six standards. I could make an argument based on experience and stories of teacher evaluation that the seven essential teaching skills are not represented by the ITS. In reflection I feel it is a lack of utilizing the standards effectively, rather than a lack of what the standards contain. I was just watching the video link from the class I missed last night and someone's mentor said, the evaluation is only as effective as the evaluator. I tend to agree. I know we have administrators out there who are strong leaders, who have no ill intention, so I am wondering how the standards and teacher evaluation got such a bad reputation. I believe it is a systems problem. Administrators with way too many hats and duties to juggle being asked to manage and be instructional leaders - something has to give! As administrators we must figure out how to effectively manage our time in order to make instruction a priority (Pugh).

J. Schutte: Three of the essential teaching skills resonate with me. The first is lesson planning. I spend a lot of my time planning lessons, preparing my classroom, and taking into account the students abilities and interests. Organization is one of my best qualities. I develop unit plans and divide them up to day-to-day plans. This helps me focus on the objectives needing to be taught. I also have a clear picture of what will be assessed at the end of the unit. The second essential teaching skill that I am good at is classroom management. I have very high expectations when it comes to behavior in my classroom. My classroom is organized, the students are engaged, and time is maximized. Finally, assessment and diagnosis has become professionally a skill that I am developing. Our district has spent the last few years developing learning goals aligned with the Iowa Core Standards and formative assessments in order to guide our instruction. We are using an RtI model for interventions of students that have not yet met the learning goals needed for the grade level as well as enriching those students that exceed the expectations for the grade level.

Sherri Peterson- All of these teaching skills are essential and a great teacher will possess all of them, however I believe that the most essential are climate management, classroom management, and student management. The best lesson plans and the most exciting and engaging lesson presentation will not matter in the end if a teacher is not able ot manage the students, the classroom, and/or the climate. The first and foremost assignment for a teacher is to establish a community of learners in the classroom. Once the community is established the teacher must begin to develop the adult-child relationships and this means a relationship with each and every student in the classroom. In order to do this the teacher must continually focus on learning and make it evident that her interest is in teaching so that all can learn. Students will believe that the teacher values them and their learning if their teacher minimizes the amount of wasted time and maximizes learning throughout the day. These three skills are the most essential in my opinion.

Jordan Henrichs: Obviously, all the essential teaching skills are important, but since the question asked for specifics, and since we all have skills we are undoubtedly better at than other skills, I chose two that not only do I feel I am strong in, but I love to do as well: //lesson planning//, and //assessment and diagnosis//. Sometimes I feel like I missed my calling as an accountant. I love analyzing numbers and data. And I really enjoy lesson planning as well. I love children's literature and get excited about teaching "literature" to my 5th graders. No matter how much I try and file away lesson plans and ideas from year to year, I find myself repeating very few lessons! I find new things I want to try. My favorite part of the PLC process has been sitting down and analyzing student data, and looking for trends. My teammates rely on me to do this. I designed the Google Spreadsheet we use to keep track of all our 5th graders and their scores on CFA's and mastery of essential skills. It's easy for me to analyze the numbers and group students together.

I feel that both of these are well represented in the Iowa Teaching Standards, in Standard 3 (lesson planning) and Standard 5 (monitor student learning). Both are difficult to observe, and would need to be proven with artifacts and reflections by the teacher. Depending on what a teacher supplies as an artifact, these two could be more difficult to "evaluate" than they should be.

Katie Kimber: Looking back at the first seven traits of highly effective teachers, I continued to look back to the trait “with-it-ness” and felt that this was one of the most critical skills for teachers to have. This trait has been related to management, but I feel it also relates to lesson presentation. This skill resonated with me the most. I visualize a teacher with eyes in the back of his or her head. This teacher knows what is going on at all times and is maximizing the use of every teachable moment. I believe that our most effective teachers are those that can engage students through meaningful content. In the end, I think that these teachers have fewer problems with management and are naturally more organized because of the skill it takes to present meaningful content for all.

When looking at the Iowa Teaching Standards, I believe, in theory that these standards measure lesson presentation. In standard 1, the teacher needs to provide evidence of student learning, if they have solid evidence, most likely the presentation of the lesson went well. In standard 2, the teacher must provide meaningful content; in standard 3 the teacher must use all available resources to prepare lessons. With each of these, I believe that if a teacher is engaging students and presenting lessons in a meaningful way, they would probably be meeting these standards and therefore presenting a quality lesson.

I think the flaw in most of our evaluation systems is that principals do not see teachers “teaching” enough to actually determine the fidelity in which these types of lessons are taking place. Can an evaluator determine if a teacher has the quality of “with-it-ness” or good lesson presentation in a couple observation sessions? I don’t think so. I believe this is something that has to be seen over time.

Emilie: The two that apply to my work and support I provide to teachers are student management and assessment and diagnosis. Most of the work I do is around assessment and diagnosis. That being said many of the artifacts I provide to support my work meeting the standards include assessment and diagnosis data. My supervisor can look at any report I write to evaluate my effectiveness surrounding assessment and diagnosis.

Bagnall: When choosing one of the seven skills, I focused on the term “resonate” instead of the word important. I think that lesson planning is probably the most important skill the teacher can have, but I think skill #2 is the one that //resonates// most with me. My teaching education focused on my development as a lesson planner—standards and benchmarks, objectives, materials, differentiation, assessment, etc. I don’t doubt the importance of that training, but what about the speech class and/or presentation classes. I would like to see a class that focuses on oration and Socratic questioning. These were elements of some classes I took, but never a primary focus. I don’t care how good the lesson is, if you can’t get it to the students in a clear, concise way that keeps their attention, you will not be an effective teacher. I had a professor in college that spoke in monotone for 50 minutes. I got a C in the class because I tuned him out. He was brilliant; the way he presented the material bored me to the point I shut down on him. That was over 30 years ago, now I am a more engaged student but I would still shut him down –I still cringe! I work with some very capable teachers that say certain words over and over and over….”um” and “you know” are words that lose me immediately as a listener. I liked the word “virtuoso” from the chapter because it makes me think of a performance. I believe instruction is very much like a performance; it isn’t enough to be knowledgeable, we must entertain, too. That’s me on my soapbox for this chapter. Lesson management would very hard to observe. It’s tough to view “mental adjustments.” Student management is sometimes difficult to observe in a few observations. It would be hard to know if the behavior we are seeing is better or worse than normal. Assessment and diagnosis is almost impossible to observe, but it is something we can evaluate by post observation questioning. The evaluation system isn’t perfect, but I feel success or failure of the evaluation process is determined more by evaluator intent/commitment than limitations of the tool itself.

Daters: I like many of the people above have said resonate with all of them but the also feel that some are more important than others at different grade levels. As an elementary teacher, lesson planning is something that I find very difficult and at times, a time waster. I believe in strong lesson plans but I feel that without the other essential skills, regardless if your lesson plans are good, they will not be effective. I think I feel most strongly about climate management, student management and classroom management if I have to pick a few. I feel this way because I truly believe that in the elementary classroom, how the student feels will make or break any lesson or any learning. I think junior high and high school students are probably better able to feel comfortable in more settings but at the early elementary, the teachers are setting precedent. However, with that being said, I also think those three things would be the hardest to evaluate. I think it is easy to see if a teacher has good lesson plans, if the lesson is presented well and if students are being assessed on their learning. Feelings are important but almost impossible to assess. I think one to thing when it comes to these essential skills is overall engagement. If a student or class is engaged, then learning is taking place. Learning will not take place if lessons are not prepared,not presented, if students are uncomfortable or not well managed. When observing and trying to evaluate these skills, student engagement may be the insight that is needed for evaluation

Cassandra Hart: All of the seven essential teaching skills are important. It’s hard to select only one. When I think about Instructional planning, standard base instruction is created based on the varying learning needs of students. We use Instructional Strategies to actively engage students in learning and encourage the development of problem-solving, critical thinking, and teamwork skills. We monitor this by using assessment and Diagnosis. Using formal and informal assessment strategies to evaluate student progress toward learning goals and provide feedback to improve student learning. This would not be possible if you didn’t have Classroom Management. Create a learning environment that encourages student motivation, positive behavior, and

collaborative social interaction. One of the most crucial pieces is Teacher Reflection. Reflecting, both individually and collaboratively, on the effects of instruction and use the reflective process to continually improve instructional practice.

Maier: I am big on management, so obviously the ones that resonate with me are the four management skills; lesson management, climate management, student management, and classroom management. Each of these skills touches an aspect of management, but as a whole a teacher must have management to be successful in the classroom. Of course, not everyone will have the same management style. The bottom line is coming up with what works for you and your students to create an environment that will be successful for learning. A teacher can have the best, most throughly planned lesson in the world, but if they don't have control of what is going on in your classroom, that lesson becomes useless!

I think that the Iowa Teaching Standards do a look closely at management, however, it is a difficult area to observe. This area is one that will require not only your more formal observations, but also your day to day interactions with that teacher and classroom and regular walk-through information. It is also something that could be incredibly different and changes from teacher to teacher and, therefore, become overwhelming to try to keep track of.

It is always important that we work to better teacher communication. This is one of the most essential pieces to the success of not only young, but experienced teachers as well. Communication is a great way for teachers to become even more effective. If one is able to communicate at a high level then they will be able to better themselves through work with their colleagues. Moreover, I feel that communication can often times smooth over the weaknesses of a teacher. Proper communication with parents about issues can go a long way in smoothing different issues that an educator might have. In the classroom there are many ways that communication can be seen. Through student interaction, teacher interaction, and even interaction with other co- workers. However, this is only a small glimpse into the communicative abilities of an educator. During evaluations and potential approval of teachers for full licensure we must have the ability to assess upon multiple data points. If we do not, the current system only offers a narrow ability to gather information. (Einsweiler)

Leisa Breitfelder: When I think about the essential teaching skills, I think of Marzano and how he says teaching is both an art and a science. This is very evident in the seven essential teaching skills. Personally I feel as I observe teachers that it is the art that can be the most difficult because in my opinion you either have it or you don’t. It is very difficult to teach the “art” part of teaching. For example, I see many teachers falter with Lesson Management, one of the essential teaching skills. It can be very difficult to read how the lesson is going with the classroom and then change in mid-lesson. Some teachers also struggle with the pacing of a lesson especially if it is a classroom with large varying needs.

 Assessment and Diagnosis is a huge area of focus within in our school. As a consultant, this is where I spend a great deal of my time. We have implemented data teams this year. Most of the questions I receive are on what type of data should we collect and how do we effective analyze this data. With the work of PLC’s and formative assessments teachers are really growing and teammates are starting to build on each other’s strengths.

 Thinking of the seven essential teaching skills, I do not believe they are adequately evaluated with our current system. A change needs to be made to have a more accurate picture of a teacher’s day-to-day teaching style. I feel the best way to do this is shorter more frequent classroom observations. This way a principal can truly assess continuous instruction in classrooms.

Zabel- To me the most essential skills are effective teaching and classroom managment. In a perfect world, these two would go together and resolve all problems in the classroom. Effective teaching is essential in the creating a productive classroom and students who can perform at a high level. In my opinion, effective teaching cannot take place in a classroom that is full of noise and distraction not necessary with the learning taking place. In all actuality, classroom managment is a struggle for teachers who are not effective teachers. When students are engaged and learning at a high level, students are less likely to be off task and disruptive. To establish a strong classroom learning environment, it is essential to establish rule and routine. By doing this students are able to see the expectations for learning, and develop the necessary skills needed to be part of an efective classroom. For these reasons, effective teaching and classroom management rely heavily upon each others and are essential to creating a productive learning environment.

​I think the two ​essential skills that resonated with me the most were engagement of students and lesson planning. A question I always ask myself when I lesson plan is "Will this keep students engaged?" It's easy to tell when walking in a classroom for 5 minutes whether a lesson is planned out with some thoughtfulness. Pacing and flow are apparent. These two traits really do go hand-in-hand. Lessons don't just get momentum from anywhere. That sort of thing is planned. Chapter 5 mentions that teachers are mind readers. In order for this to happen they need to listen to students and continue to check for understanding. When this happens, it will be easy to alter your pacing for students and know when to make things a big deal for students or on the other side if you see they are becoming bored or tuned out. Also, routine is a good thing for classroom procedures, but nothing beats students not knowing what great site they'll get to interact with or the activity they'll get to do with a primary source. Will there be a competition today? How much flexibility will there be in how I perform a task? Will this be in groups, partners, or individuals? Another way to keep engagement is to fill the lesson with mini-lessons. In order to pander to the American TV culture, it's necessary to switch activities every 10-15 minutes. It's important to look for those things in teachers' lessons. (Moran)